Expected Completion of PhD Date:
May 2020
CV(PDF)
Major Fields:
Microeconomics, computational methods,
ecological economics
Dissertation Title:
“Economic Production as Life: A
Classical Approach to Computational Social Science”
Profile:
My research employs
computational methods to further our understanding of the complex and
evolutionary dynamics of economic competition as the central regulating force
of the social division of labor in the capitalist system. My research interests
include microeconomics, political economy, complexity theory, industrial organization,
ecological economics, and regional inequality.
In the first chapter of my dissertation, “Economic Production as Life,” I address the
classic problem of the dynamic convergence of a competitive economy to
equilibrium under alternative microfoundations where reproduction, not
optimization, is the fundamental closure of the model. Equilibrium in prices
and quantities is not presumed, but dynamically attained, under evolving
technology and demand, by the systematic, disorderly operation of economic
competition over microeconomic variables in the form of macro-level statistical
regularities in the aggregate. The model reproduces a variety of stylized facts
of economic competition: price equalization around its competitive value, selection
of the lowest-cost technology, equalization of inter-industrial profit rates
and supply and demand, downward-sloping demand curves, and a tent-shaped
distribution for profitability that is consistent with the empirical evidence.
In the second chapter, “How Much Time Do We Have Left for
the Green Transition?”, I explore the dynamics of the structural transition of
national economies from carbon to renewable energy. Using WIOD empirical
input-output data, I implement simulations of the Flaschel-Semmler model of
multisectorial growth with technology innovation and extinction and assess how
directed revenue-neutral fiscal policy and technical efficiency can accelerate
the speed of de-carbonization.
In the third chapter, “Exploring Bagnasco’s Hypothesis of
the Third Italy Today,” I employ an econometric machine-learning technique to
track and identify spatial clusters of socioeconomic data. I evaluate
persistent regional inequality in Italy in the recent context of the European
Common Market and assess to what extent it explains the current rise of
far-right populism in the country.
Contact Email: vallo119@newschool.edu